1. Field of the Invention
Applicants' invention relates to a device for protecting the saddle horn and swells of a saddle. More particularly, it relates to a wrap designed to protect the saddle horn and swells when a lariat rope is dallied around it and pressure applied, as when roping cattle in the sports of team and calf roping.
2. Background Information
Roping cattle from horseback is a historical process that many recognize. Branding and doctoring the cattle necessitated that cowboys capture the animals, and early ranches where this process completed without the benefit or aid or pens and specialized shoots necessitated a very specific skill of the cowboys, as well as necessitating specialized equipment. Part of this specialized equipment included development of the western saddle. These skills and equipment in practice in many places yet today.
Many people are also familiar with the transition that was made of the various roping styles to rodeo events. One of the roping styles that found its way to the rodeo arena, and continues to grow in popularity, is the sport of team roping. Team roping, as its name implies, is an event that is completed by two ropers. The first roper, called the header, ropes the animals first and either ropes the animal around the neck or, more preferably, around the horns. The second roper, called the healer, waits for the header to slow the animal and turn the animal at an approximate 90-degree angle before roping the animal's hind legs.
In a typical rodeo run, the steer is placed in a starting gate called a shoot. Behind the shoot is a three-sided area called the box in which the header and healer start on their horses. Traditionally, the header and healer were in a double-box to the rear and on the right side of the steer. However, in the last few decades, it has become most common that the header starts in a box to the rear and on the left side of the steer, while the healer starts in a box to the rear and on the right side of the steer. The header calls for the steer to be released by nodding his head or otherwise indicating his readiness. The steer is given a designated head start, called a score, and the ropers (or at least the header) are required to wait in the box until the steer reaches a certain point, at which time they can leave the box in pursuit of the steer.
Once the ropers leave the box, their horses chase the steer an attempt to close the distance between the animals. As the header gets closer to the steer, he generally attempts to arrive to the rear of the animal close enough to rope it and slightly to its left. Meanwhile, the healer rates his horse back and to the right of the steer such that he is ready to close the gap after the header ropes, but also he can attempt to help keep the steer from ducking to the right.
Once the roper has gotten close enough to the steer to rope, he ropes the steer around the horns or neck and pulls his slack to tighten the loop around the steer's horns. He then takes a couple of wraps around his saddle horn with the free end of the rope (the “dally”) so that the steer is effectively attached by the rope to the saddle of the horse and rider. The header then signals his horse to slow which also slows the steer slightly. Then he turns his head horse off to the left at approximately a 90-degree angle such that the steer is then pulled to the left as well. Once the steer changes directions, the healer is then allowed to take his throw at the heels of the steer. He attempts to rope both hind feet, although roping one hind foot is a legal catch as well, albeit one with a penalty. Once the healer ropes the hind feet, he dallies his rope as well and stops his horse. The header continues until he takes the slack out of his rope, then turns his horse to face the steer, leaving the steer immobilized between the two horses.
The western saddle was traditionally, and is still, used on working horses on cattle ranches throughout the United States, particularly in the west. They are the “cowboy” saddles familiar to movie viewers and rodeo fans. The western saddle is characterized as allowing great freedom of movement to the horse, and security to the rider and strong control of the horse. One extremely functional item is virtually always identified with the western saddle—the saddle “horn.”
As is evident from the description of team roping above, the saddle horn is integral to roping cattle, whether it is in team roping as described above, or in branding, doctoring, tie-down calf roping, or other instances in which an animal is roped and snubbed to the roper's saddle. The saddle horn allows cowboys to control cattle by use of a rope around the neck, horns, or legs of the animal, tied or dallied around the horn. A “dally” is the term for when the rope is wrapped around the horn, without a knot, to cinch the bovine to the saddle. The free end of the rope is wrapped around the horn and held by the cowboy. The cowboy can then hold the free end tight or let it slide around the horn to best control the cow. Given that the horn must thus accept the weight of both the horse and steer, the horn is subject to extreme pressure. Likewise, as the dally is tighten, or is allowed to slide, there is an enormous amount of friction developed between the rope and the saddle horn.
The saddle horn is generally covered with leather or raw-hide and is susceptible to being damaged by the friction. As a result, cowboys often wrap their saddle horns with protective material that can be disposed of as it becomes damaged by the friction, removed, and replaced.
Probably the most common and popular of modern horn wraps are strips of rubble inner tube, where the strips are cut perpendicular to the tube so that a circle of rubber stripping is obtained. The strip is then pulled and stretched about the saddle horn until it is tight and covers the horn. It is then tied onto itself.
Other horn protective materials have been developed, such as the saddle horn friction fitting described by Jones in U.S. Pat. No. 6,062,006. The '006 patent describes a hollow cylindrical fitting piece of rubber sized with an inner diameter sufficiently undersized in relation to the saddle horn that it achieves a tight, tensioned fit over the saddle horn. In practice however, in order for the single piece unit to be sufficiently tight to keep from turning when under the stress of a dally, it is so small that it is extremely difficult to install on the saddle horn. Likewise, when it needs to be replaced, it is very hard to remove, or it must either be cut off, creating the possibility of damaging the saddle horn.